We woke up wanting our bacon egg and cheese cups, but we’re doing Whole30 this month. So, we took out the cheese and added veggies, took out the bread and added more bacon (not a huge loss!), and switched regular butter with organic clarified butter (ghee), along with some other smaller changes. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

bacon

eggs

onion and bell pepper (any veggies will do, but these 2 taste great together!)

more bacon

salt & pepper

coconut spray oil

clarified butter (ghee)

tomatoes and avocado on top

muffin pan

Preheat oven to 350. Spray muffin pan with coconut spray oil.

Sauté your onion and bell pepper in the leftover bacon grease. We also added a little clarified butter.

Cook bacon slowly on medium heat until almost fully cooked. Create “cups” with the bacon in the muffin pan.

4 years ago, my wife and I took the Whole30 Challenge and truly enjoyed it. Though difficult, it felt great to eat real food. This is the heart behind Whole30: Eating real food. We ate meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. We ate foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed.

Our staff is about to start the Whole30 challenge, so I wanted to share some helpful tips, recipes as well as some of the meals we made when we went through it. One the most difficult things, besides not eating cheese and bread, was planning our meals. I hope this can help someone taking the challenge.

Ideas from Erin Jasper:

Crock Pot Brisket – Delicious and easy.Breakfast Sausage – Also a great site for other recipes. Make sure they are whole30 compliant. You can make this sausage for a casserole, scramble or make patty’s. I made another breakfast sausage in the food log with blueberriesChili – Another great site for recipes as well.Stuffed Poblano Peppers – I do a variation of this recipe and buy Diestel Turkey Chorizo (in a tube) from Whole Foods. I don’t use the hot sauce or the spices. I basically use onions, garlic, meat and tomato paste then bake in the peppers.Comfort NoodlesThai Beef with Basil – So tasty! I love basil and thai and like the flavor of this.

Salads
I like grilled chicken on these salads. I have been making Asian sesame dressing for these. I love sesame oil and it’s compliant as long as it’s not cooked!
Recipe here: http://www.lifemadefull.com/tag/whole30-salad-dressing-recipe/
-Spring mix or spinach, asparagus, mandarin oranges, red onion or green, nuts
-Spring mix, grapes, cashews, baby bok choy, green onions
-Spring mix, cilantro, mango, napa cabbage, carrots
-Spinach, shredded chicken, cherry tomato’s, dill, red onion and egg free ranch (in log)
-Or you can mix a ton of veggies and top with tuna or even do a grilled veggie salad

Cook 1lb chorizo (you can use sausage but I like chorizo) in a iron skillet.

Once cooked, remove meat from iron skillet and then brown 2 plantains and onion.

Once those begin to cook down then throw the chorizo back into the skillet.

Make 6 “nests” in the plantain/chorizo then crack an egg and drop 1 into each of the 6 “nests”.

Throw it in the oven at 350 until the egg whites are white but the yolk is still runny.

Serve with sliced avocado on top. (When not on Whole30 we do goat cheese as well)

Staples to have in your pantry

– Olive oil – both EVOO and light (you can use this for dressings)
– Coconut oil
– Coconut aminos – Sub for soy sauce. Use in salad dressings also.
– Coconut milk
– Canned tomatoes
– Nuts – great toppings for salads, stir-fry; you can leave raw or roast the nuts
– Ghee butter – this is clarified butter and great for cooking; use sparingly
– Spices/herbs/curry powder and paste – they flavor well and if you like curry then you can use it for different dishes with and w/o coconut milk

Breakfast is one of our favorite meals of the day. When we’re not rushing to get the kids out of the house in the morning, we like to make a good cup of coffee (that post is coming soon!) and cook a good breakfast. Our dishes usually include bacon, eggs, bread, really great cheese and bacon (did I say that already?). We’ve mixed all of these ingredients together in various ways over the years, but the Bacon Egg & Cheese Cups have been the most fun to eat. It’s simple to make and it tastes great.

Ingredients:

bacon

eggs

aged cheddar cheese (do not skimp here, a good cheese will make the difference between good and great!)

bread

muffin pan and liners

salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350

Cook bacon slowly on medium heat until almost fully cooked

While the bacon is cooking, use a cookie cutter or a drinking glass to make bread circles

Drizzle a small amount of bacon grease into the bottom of each muffin liner to prevent sticking before placing the bread circles in the pan. You can also use cooking spray.

Add in sliced cheese on top of the bread

Wrap bacon around the edge of each liner

Carefully crack an egg on top of the bread and cheese

Add salt and pepper

Bake on 350 for 15 minutes until the eggs are set but yolk is still soft

I’ve enjoyed making this cream cheese sausage crescent roll for a long time and thought it would be fun to document the process. My Mom made this for me when I a child and I’ve been hooked ever since. This flaky, cheesy, porky, amazing breakfast roll has brought a lot of smiles, full stomachs and probably some high cholesterol to my family over the years. The best part, besides the flavor, is that it’s really easy to make.

Only 4 ingredients are needed:

1 can Crescent rolls

1 package Cream Cheese

1 lb. breakfast sausage

egg white

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage until it’s no longer pink.

Melt the cream cheese in a microwavable bowl for 20-30 seconds or until soft.

Add sausage to the cream cheese and mix together.

Generously butter a sheet pan.

Lay crescent rolls out on the buttered pan.

Crimp the seams together to make one large crescent roll.

Place the cream cheese/sausage mixture in the center of the roll.

Carefully pull up corners of the crescent roll over the mixture, crimping it shut.

Brush egg white over the entire crescent roll. This will give it a nice shine when it’s baked.